Paul Onuachu calmly tied the score for Nigeria after Neil El Aynaoui scored first for Morocco. Hamza Igamane’s effort was expertly stopped by Stanley Nwabali, giving the Super Eagles a temporary edge. However, Samuel Chukwueze, who was brought in late in extra time, was unable to capitalize after his badly executed spot-kick was disallowed.
Ben Seghir gave Morocco the lead again, and Nigeria’s Fisayo Dele-Bashiru answered before Achraf Hakimi gave the home team the lead once again. After Yassine Bounou denied Bruno Onyemaechi with Nigeria’s fourth kick, Youssef En-Nesyri sealed the win and put the Atlas Lions in their first AFCON final since 2004. They are still on track to win their first continental championship in fifty years.
Chelle defended his players’ performances in both normal time and the shootout despite his team’s unusual struggles in the semifinal.
In his post-match interview, Chelle stated, “Normally, we play a 4-4-2 diamond. Because I felt it was difficult to apply high pressure, I put Moses in midfield and Chukwueze on for the penalty situation.”
“The guys who took the kicks were the top performers over the last month, and we practiced penalties in every training session. We chose them for that reason.
Nigeria’s chances of winning a fourth continental championship and making it to the AFCON final for the second time in a row were dashed by the loss.
“The guys demonstrated a great mental response and fought for every ball, even though the contest was never easy. It hurts a lot to lose on penalties. We put in a lot of effort during the tournament, so it’s challenging, but that’s football. We have to keep working,” Chelle continued.
“We played this game with a lot of pressing because if you don’t press, you leave gaps and things get really complicated.” Technically speaking, we weren’t performing as well as we had in previous games. I don’t want to claim that exhaustion was the cause, but the reality is that we lacked strength and mobility.
Nigeria, who had eight third-place results at the continental championship since winning the AFCON in 2013, will now focus on another third-place play-off match against Egypt in Casablanca on Saturday.
